Evolution of Computers and the Internet - Chapter 1

Vocabulary flashcards covering major concepts from the Evolution of Computers and the Internet lecture notes, including historical computers, GUI, Internet origins, key protocols, and digital concepts.

Altair 8800

Early personal computer (1975) with only 256 bytes of memory, no keyboard or monitor; data entered via front-panel switches and LEDs indicated results.

Apple I

Apple's first computer (1976) formed by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak; 4 KB RAM; OS stored in ROM; optional floppy disk for loading programs.

Apple II

1977 microcomputer with color monitor, sound, game paddles; 4 KB RAM; OS in ROM; optional floppy disk.

TRS-80

Radio Shack computer (1977) with monochrome display, 4 KB RAM; circuitry hidden under the keyboard.

Osborne 1

First portable computer (1981); weighs about 24.5 pounds, 5-inch screen; 64 KB RAM; two floppy drives; bundled with software.

IBM PC (5150)

IBM personal computer launched in 1981; RAM ranges from 64 KB to 256 KB; floppy drives optional; hard disks not common in early models.

Personal Computer (PC)

General term for a computer designed for use by individuals, as opposed to large-scale or specialized systems.

Graphical User Interface (GUI)

User interface that uses graphical elements like windows, icons, and menus for interaction.

WYSIWYG

What You See Is What You Get; GUI concept where editing display resembles final output.

Xerox Alto

Early GUI-oriented workstation; introduced WYSIWYG word processor, mouse, and networking concepts.

Apple Lisa

1983 GUI-based Apple computer; features Windows, menus, and icons; precursor to Macintosh.

Macintosh (Mac)

Apple GUI-based computer (1984); popularized GUI with 3.5-inch floppy disks, windows, icons, and mouse-driven interaction.

Mosaic

Web browser released in 1993 that popularized the World Wide Web.

World Wide Web (WWW)

Subset of the Internet of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via web browsers.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)

Protocol used for transferring web pages over the Internet.

Tim Berners-Lee

Inventor of the World Wide Web and contributor to HTTP and web standards.

Internet

Global network of networks connecting billions of computers worldwide.

ARPANET

Early network created by ARPA (US DoD) that formed the core of the Internet; established 1958.

ASCII

Character encoding standard used for data exchange between different computer systems.

TCP/IP

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol; suite of communication protocols enabling diverse networks to connect.

Email

Electronic mail; Ray Tomlinson popularized sending messages over ARPANET and introduced the user@host convention.

IP Address

Unique numeric address assigned to devices on a network to identify them on the Internet.

Domain

Human-friendly naming system used to map to IP addresses on the Internet.

Internet Backbone

High-speed transmission lines that form the principal data routes of the Internet.

Internet2

A consortium of academia, industry, and government pursuing faster, experimental network technologies and applications.

Data vs Information

Data are raw facts; information is organized data processed to be meaningful.

Bit and Byte

Bit is a 0 or 1; a byte is 8 bits and is the basic unit of data storage.

Kilobyte to Exabyte (KB–EB)

KB (1024 bytes), MB (1024 KB), GB (1024 MB), TB (1024 GB), PB (1024 TB), EB (1024 PB); units of digital information.

GUI Milestones: Lisa and Macintosh

Early GUI systems by Apple (Lisa, Macintosh) popularized windows, icons, menus, and the mouse.

Mainframe

Large-scale computer system that supports many users and programs simultaneously, common in banks and large organizations.

Supercomputer

Extremely powerful computer designed to perform complex calculations at very high speed.

Embedded Computer

Self-contained computing devices dedicated to specific functions within larger systems (phones, GPS, MP3 players).